World War II veteran recounts his experience at Iwo Jima on battle's 68th anniversary (WITH VIDEO)

By PAUL POST

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

QUEENSBURY -- For 60 years, Ralph Leinoff was like millions of other World War II veterans.

He came home, forgot about the battles he'd fought in and went about raising a family and making a living.

Many others weren't so fortunate -- the ones who lost arms, legs, eyesight or were plagued by never-ending images of death, suffering and pain.

"For them, the war never ended," Leinoff said. "I started to realize how fortunate I was. I took a lot of things for granted. You shouldn't do that."

A U.S. Marine, he gave more than 1,000 days of his life to military service.

One stands out above all others -- Feb. 19, 1945 -- when his machine gun squad hit the beach at Iwo Jima in one of the bloodiest, most hard-fought battles of the entire war.

"We lived together for three years," said Leinoff, who recently turned 90. "We depended on each other."

A few years ago, the memories came flooding back following the release of the Clint Eastwood-directed movie "Flags of Our Fathers" -- based on author James Bradley's Book -- that recounts the stories of the five Marines and one Navy corpsman who raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi five days into the battle.

Joseph Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of that momentous occasion is one of the war's most enduring images, symbolizing everything that Marines stand for. The Marine Corps War Memorial adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery is modeled after it.

Leinoff got his first glimpse of those Stars and Stripes after the men he'd come ashore with secured one of the island's three airfields. Of the seven men in his company, only three survived. The others were among the 6,821 Americans killed during the fierce fighting.

"The only shelter we had was the shell holes our naval ships had made on the beach," Leinoff said. "They pounded the island before we went ashore in amphibious landing ships. The Japanese were firing at us, but the real trouble started when we disembarked and started up the beach. Then they had a concentrated target. They were firing at us with machine guns, mortars and rockets.

"The Marines' objective was to take as much ground as possible. You were moving."

From his position, Mount Suribachi was about two miles away.

"They lost a lot of men going up there," Leinoff said. "High ground was where you wanted to be."

Grabbing a pair of binoculars, through the black smoky mess he saw the red, white and blue flying overhead. The flag Rosenthal captured on film was a larger replacement of one that had been raised shortly beforehand.

"It was a sign, a symbol of patriotism and pride," Leinoff said. "I was very happy to see that flag. But that wasn't the end."

The battle raged for another four weeks until the fighting finally ceased March 26.

During a break in the action, about two weeks into the campaign, Leinoff got a mail delivery that included a servicemen's version of Time Magazine that featured a silhouette image of Rosenthal's photograph.

Inspired by it, like so many others, Leinoff decided to make a rough sketch of it.

When the battle was over, his outfit was sent back to Maui to begin training for an invasion of the Japanese mainland. Everybody found their own way to relax. For Leinoff, it was drawing, so he made a larger colored version of the picture.

"Guys brought home all kinds of things -- swords, sabers, flags," he said. "I made my own souvenir."

After the war, he put it in a folder and it stayed there for 63 years.

"At one point I really was going to throw it away," he said.

But with the release of Eastwood's movie, Leinoff realized its importance and his own role in a battle that changed history. Previously, his "Fighting Fourth" Marine Division had won back the Marshall Islands, Saipan and Tinian.

Iwo Jima, about 1,000 miles almost due south of Tokyo, was the next step as the United States island-hopped its way toward Japan.

"Until we took Iwo, a lot of our wounded B-29s dumped into the sea after they bombed Japan," Leinoff said.

Once it was in U.S. hands, American pilots had a safe place to land.

Leinoff's colored drawing now has a place of honor above the mantel in his comfortable Queensbury home. He was a New York City fireman for 27 years before retiring as a lieutenant from Engine Co. 243 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Now, instead of forgetting the war, his artwork is a constant reminder of the men he fought with, their sacrifice and those who didn't come back.

"Marines were part of history," he said. "What we did is still there. I feel very close to my Marine buddies."